All of which made me start wondering how did the Girl Scouts, so similar to the Boy Scouts in so many ways, avoid this controversy?

I asked Colleen Walker, CEO of the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas, about it. She said that it has been a non-issue from the time of the inception of the Girl Scouts and the organization has just never allowed that to change. She said that’s because of the organization’s founder, Juliette Gordon Low.

Colleen Walker, CEO of the Girl Scouts of North Texas

She told me about all the factors that shaped Juliette’s passion for inclusion and diversity: her deafness, her public humiliation by her husband and how she made up her mind as a result of her struggles both as a disabled person and as a woman that every girl, with no distinction, would have an equal shot at learning how to become a leader in her community. Right off the bat, the very first Girl Scout troop of 18 pulled together girls from a church, synagogue and orphanage. And this was starting in 1912, when segregation was rampant.

Yes, they conformed to certain segregation rules of their times in various cities in the early years, but never stopped reaching out to all members of the community and bringing them together with increasing success. That’s why in 1956 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described Girl Scouts as “a force for desegregation” in 1956.

“She wanted it to be inclusive to all girls of all faiths, of all socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, including girls with disabilities,” Colleen says.

To understand Juliette’s commitment to looking out for all girls, no exceptions, Colleen told me, you have to know her life story. She started out with a privileged upbringing, the daughter of parents devoted to public service — a northern mother, whose family had helped settle the city of Chicago, and a southern father who had been a decorated military officer, politician and businessman who helped rebuild their city of Savannah, Georgia. Juliette married at 26, but she and her wealthy husband were never able to have children, which was a source of sadness for her. She got an infection in her eardrum that caused near deafness, another source of sorrow. She was shamed publicly when her husband brought his mistress into their home, died in bed with her and left the mistress all of their money (yes, Juliette’s, too — a woman’s money belonged to her husband at that time, this was before women even had the right to vote).

Juliette fought for her money in the courts and won back some, but with most still going to the mistress. At 51, when thinking about what she wanted her contribution to the world would be, she met Lord Robert Baden-Powell who had started the Boy Scouts in England in 1911 and decided she wanted to start a Girl Guides, to be renamed Girl Scouts in America as an organization run by women for girls — a tradition that continues today.

“She came back to Savannah, Georgia and said, ‘This is where I need to channel my passions, my resources not just for the girls of Savannah and America but for the world,” Colleen says. “Life is messy and imperfect and unpredictable. But a girl will become a woman and she needs to be as prepared as possible — prepared for home life, for serving the community and for surprises along the way.”

So not only has the issue of whether or not a girl is gay has never been asked, when the question of atheism reared its head, as it continues to do for the Boy Scouts, that became a non-issue, too. Back in the 1990s, it was decided that girls were not required to say the word God in the Girl Scout Promise.

The Girl Scouts are not about teaching faith, Colleen explains. They are about teaching girls courage, character, compassion, confidence and commitment to the community, she says.

“Juliet had the vision that we could not exclude girls for any reason. She never wanted any girl to feel she could not participate. It’s organic to who we are.”

Denver Nuggets star Kenneth “the Manimal” Faried celebrates his two moms for One Colorado, a support and advocacy organization for the LGBT community. As the three of them share stories about their family, he says the only thing that upset him even momentarily about their marriage is that he wasn’t there for the ceremony; they tied the knot while he was away at college.

“Nobody can ever tell me I can’t have two mothers, because I really do,” he says.